God Works Through His Servants – Pt. 1
Memory verse: I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me, you can do nothing (John 15:5)
We often act as though God tells us what He wants us to do and then sends us off by ourselves to try and do it. Then anytime we need Him, we can call on Him, and He comes to help us. That is not the biblical picture. When God is about to do something, He reveals it to His people. He wants to accomplish His work through His people or His servant.
When God is about to do something through you, He has to get you from where you are to where He is, so He tells you what He is doing. When you know what God is doing, then you know what you need to do: you need to join Him. The moment you know God is doing something where you are, your life and its activity will be thrown in contrast to God and His activity. You cannot stay the way you are and go with God.
Seven Realities of Experiencing God
God is always at work around you
God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal
God invites you to become involved with Him in His work
God speaks by the Holy Spirit, through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways
God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action
You must make major adjustment in your life to join God in what He is doing
You come to know God by experience as you obey Him, and He accomplishes Hs work through you
Using the Seven Realities, let’s look Moses’ call and response
Reality 1. God was already at work around Moses
“The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for f=help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So, God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them” (Ex. 2:23-25).
Reality 2. God pursued a continuing love relationship with Moses that was real and personal
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commands I have written for their instruction.’ When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights” (Ex. 24:12, 15-16, 18).
Reality 3. God invited Moses to become involved with Him in His work
“I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land into a good and spacious land. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” (Ex. 3:8,10)
Whenever God prepares to do something, He reveals to a person or His people what He is going to do (see Amos 3:7). God accomplishes His work through His people. This is the way God will work with you. The Bible is designed to help you understand God’s ways. Then when God starts to act in that manner in your life, you will recognize that it is He who is working.